An airspace model aplicable for automatic flight route planning inside free route airspace

Abstract

The article is strongly related to the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) project. The project's objective is the improvement of air transport above Europe 0. Since Air Traffic Management (ATM) is involved to obtain more effective approach to air traffic flow managing activities, the concept of Flexible Use Airspace (FUA) has arisen in result. ATM is a quite developed aviation's subdomain, therefore currently existing airspace state has been described briefly in the article, referring to the presented solution concept. The notion of Free Route Airspace (FRA) airspace model defined in this article relies on mathematical description. The selected approach clarifies airspace as a set of squares or cubes that have volumes with appointed values due to certain conditions in the considered time (i.e. traffic flow or weather). The model has to ensure facilitation of flight route planning and warrant aircrafts separation towards flight safety assurance. The concept assumes that this airspace model will provide assistance for airspace user to select essential flight plan criteria, such as economy, time, etc. The path will be appointed according to personal preferences, based on the model from which further elaborated algorithm will evaluate situation. The presented solution is a response to air traffic growth. Therefore it supports the SESAR project through research and development activities. The description proves that airspace model would create enhancement in flight planning for airspace users.

A Spatially Bounded Airspace Axiom

“…We assume that each vertex (significant point) can be connected to every vertex (significant point) within the area FRA. This network is called the Free Route Airspace Network and is denoted by NFRA, see ( [11], Algorithm section, A [2]-The Vertex SEE FRA).…”

“…The application of graph theory in airspace modelling has been already a subject of research from different authors. In the work [2] the authors focused on the FRA overview in comparison to the classical, network-based airways structure and on an airspace model applicable to the automatic route selection process to facilitate the entire flight planning process. Another research on this subject was included in the work [3] where the author described a problem of air routing and discussed the use of algorithms/approaches in the conventional Air Traffic Services (ATS) route network and FRA environment.…”

Regular graph-based free route flight planning approach

“…These papers report the application of the TOMATO simulation toolset to modelling and analysis of free route trajectories taking into consideration weather, ecological, airspace constraints and costs, as well as aircraft parameters. Other works showing the attempt to find an optimal flight route in a holistic original FRA model are Drupka et al (2018) and Drupka et al (2020).…”

Multicriteria decision-making in flight route selection

“…In our case study, we want to plan a flight onboard Airbus A320 from Budapest -LHBP (47°26 0 13 00 N, 19°15 0 20 00 E) to Lyon -LFLL (45°43 0 35 00 N, 5°05 0 27 00 E). An initial subset of eight flight alternatives was generated with the help of dedicated software using a graph-based algorithm and the discretized FRA model (Drupka et al, 2018). We assume the length of the cell edge to be equal to 27 NM (50 km) in the discretized airspace.…”

“…the shortest distance). It should be based on a well-organized airspace model that can be created through discretization of the airspace (Drupka et al , 2018). This is done by dividing the airspace into cubic cells (Figure 2).…”